Viktor Alexandrovich was born in the village of POLKANOVKA, KOZYLSK DISTRICT (between Krasnoyarsk and Achinsk). In this village there were about 40 farms before the war, the population mainly originated from the Ukraine and Belorussia. His father, Alexander Grigorievich YAZENKO (1902-1937), worked as a joiner in one of the Achinsk forest districts, in the settlement of Tamozhenka on the river Chulym (9 km away from POLKANOVKA.
On the 28.07.1937 the father was asked to come to POLKANOVKA and arrested him at home, as soon as he had returned from work. And later, in his absence, the carried out a house search: the were looking for hunting weapons.
The father was first taken away to KOZULKA and, after a couple of days, to the prison in ACHINSK. There he worked in the joiner’s workshop, and when mother came to Achinsk, they were even allowed to see eachother.
A.G. YAZENKO was sentenced by a troyka on the 26.10.1937.
He was posthumously rehabilitated on the 28.07.1959 by the Krasnoyarsk regional court.
Apart from A.G. YAZENKO they arrested another man in POLKANOVKA: a Pole named Tomashchuk. They also came for him in 1937.
In 1941 two German families from the Volga region were exiled to this village. They were Alexander SCHMUNK, a black-smith, with his wife – and NAZARENUS with his wife and three daughters: Yekaterina (Katharina), born around 1915, Emilia (Emilie), born around 1930, and Rosa, born around 1932. Both families left the village after 1956
There were no further exiles in POLKANOVKA, but during the war many exiled Calmucks were deported to the settlement of TAMOZHENKA (see above). They starved, wandered through the villages and begged for bread for their children.
27.02.1994, recorded by V.S. Birger, Krasnoyarsk, „Memorial“ Society
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